The Ralph Miliband Lecture has been no stranger to some rather explosive characters recently. Readers will remember how in 2010 Ed’s mate at the LSE David Held invited Saif Gaddafi, the Butcherer of Bengazi to be, to speak as a “representative of the Miliband program”. Held buttering Saif up as a great reformer and humanitarian will surely go down as one of the most ill-fated welcomes of all time:

Almost as lavish as Ed’s own praise for the discredited lecture program:

Surely no self-respecting defender of the downtrodden would want to follow in the footsteps of Gaddafi?

This year’s Ralph Miliband programme is being headlined next week by Len McCluskey. The former Unite union baron will presumably be explaining how the general strike would work as he eulogises about the Labour leader’s late Marxist father. And just to round things off the following week? Laurie Penny will be sharing her pearls of wisdom. The whole thing has about as much credibility these days as the Orwell Prize…

Ever heard of the USDAW? New figures released show that the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers have quietly become Labour’s second biggest donor over the last year, generously pushing nearly £2 million Ed’s way. As with every union that decides to donate to the Labour Party, the USDAW are certainly getting their bang for their buck.

Back in August USDAW general secretary John Hannett talking about Sunday trading: “The Government promised it, it was neither a trial nor Trojan horse for permanent deregulation”. And what did Labour think about this, surely they had their own, original position to take on the issue? One day later Chuka Umunna popped up to add that the government had promised “that the temporary suspension of the restrictions would not be used as a ‘Trojan horse’ for permanent change”. He could have at least thought of his own line…

Paul McKeever, the rent-a-rozzer head of the Police Federation has told the BBC this afternoon that he would be “first in queue to apologise” if Mitchell has “been done a calumny.” Which reminded Guido of what the very same police union were saying during the autumn:

“Members of the West Midlands Police Federation said Andrew Mitchell had “no option but to resign”, following a meeting with the chief whip. They said Mr Mitchell repeated a “profound apology with feeling” but continued to deny using the words attributed to him during an outburst at police officers outside Number 10. This meant his position had become “untenable”, they said.”

Apparently he now feels “we can all say we can do things better” when asked about his aggressive campaign to decapitate the former Chief Whip. Guido isn’t sure it’s going to be that easy for the militant union, if Mitchell does eventually vindicate himself…

As Tom Watson well knows, FoIs can turn up all sorts of gems. Like Labour MPs who rent flats from trade union officials using taxpayers’ money. Having previously lived with Len McKlusky, Watson currently rents two rooms from Unite official Jim Mowatt.  Between 2005 and 2009 Tommo and fellow Labour MP Iain Wright had claimed more than £100,000 on expenses for a London flat they used to share, now Watson is channeling taxpayer cash to a union pal for another property.

IPSA have yet to determine whether he is paying a commercial rent rate…

Labour wannabe attack dog Karl Turner is even more brazen, renting directly from Bob Crow’s RMT.

Yet more taxpayer funding of trade unions…

The Fire Brigades Union have released a nice inflammatory poster for bonfire week. In an uncharacteristic bout of originality, they have rounded on “the cuts”. Unsurprisingly, their rhetoric is nothing more than a load of hot air:

“The stark reality is that these cuts will kill people. Fire service or funeral service? Let your MP know which you’d prefer.”

Only that isn’t the stark reality at all. Government statistics show that fire-related deaths have been on a downward trend for three decades and now stand at their lowest level since the 1950s. In the last ten years alone the number of fire-related incidents in England halved. What’s more, fire and rescue authorities have been asked to find savings of only 2.2% in 2011-12 and just 0.5% in 2012-13.

Union scaremongering? Whatever next…

Brace yourself for the most terrifying statistic you will read this Halloween: trade unions are being subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of £113 million-a-year. New research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance shows that in 2011-12 £92 million of our money was spent on funding trade union Pilgrims alone.

Not only that, but the report claims that public bodies have even been deducting union subscription fees in the payroll process without charging the unions for the work that requires, in spite of unions themselves claiming the opposite.  

Where is Van Helsing, to plunge a stake straight through the hearts of these taxpayer-funded bloodsuckers once and for all…

£90,000-a-year Communication Workers’ Union fat cat Billy Hayes managed to boost his salary by another £29,580 this year by converting backdated unused annual leave into cash. Normally annual leave must be taken in the period it is due but Hayes has been able to accumulate unused leave over twelve years and write himself a five-figure cheque. Furious CWU members have written to union bosses accusing Hayes, who seems to earn so much he has lost count, of “deliberate abuses of the union’s money”.

They also claim the CWU’s pension schemes are haemorrhaging money and have left the union “on the verge of a financial meltdown”. Not exactly what you call performance-related pay…

Via London Loves Business.

Two-faced Chuka Umunna has had his man of the people act busted by pesky photographers. The Shadow Business Secretary popped up on Sky News just after eleven o’clock but by the time he had joined the trade union march, just metres from Sky’s Millbank studios, he had undergone a wardrobe change. Normally Chuka just says different things when the camera is off, now it seems he is taking his act to a whole new level.

Pics via @tomwilson23 and @liarpoliticians

As the TUC prepare to go on another pointless walk this weekend, Guido couldn’t help but chuckle when he read the London Loves Business interview with union boss Bill Hayes this evening. It turns out the £97,000-a-year fat cat is paid so much he has lost count:

“It’s not £97,000. Off the top of my head, I’d have to look it up. I don’t think [it's more]. Without looking at my payslip, I don’t know, I don’t know – but it’s good pay.”

Union bosses are so rich they don’t know how much they earn. Guido wonders how many of those paying him through their subs can say the same?

A significant Pilgrims development from yesterday. Liam Fox suggested that unions are basing their calculations for facility time allocations – how many hours taxpayer funded trade unionists are allowed to spent on union acitivity – on a 40% exaggeration of the real figure:

“The picture may actually be worse than appears at face value since the Facility Time allocations - the delightfully obtuse name for official trade union activities — is based on full departmental headcounts not the union membership within a department. For example,the PCS website claims that there are “more than 55,000 members” within Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HM RC). Yet, elsewhere on their website they explain that the HM RC Facility Time allocation for the current year is being based on the departmental headcount of 75,456. In other words, they base their calculations for their union time – and ultimately public remuneration - on a 40% exaggeration of the actual number of members they actually serve.”

Potentially meaning that the unions are raking in huge amounts of taxpayer cash against the rules. This one has legs…